Mighty Joe Young: At 100, Joe McCormick Believed To Be Oldest Living UConn Football Player

BLOOMFIELD -- Joe McCormick's voice tailed off until he became quiet near the end of an hourlong interview in his home at Seabury, an active life care community.

McCormick, who turned 100 in May and is believed to be the oldest living former UConn football player, was alone in his thoughts, the conversation no doubt bringing back so many memories.

Athletics is only a part of McCormick's distinguished story, which includes retiring from the active reserves as a Brigadier General in 1967 with three Battle Stars, a Bronze Star and an Oak Leaf Cluster; being president and CEO of Connecticut Light & Power from 1968-1977; and serving as vice chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees and UConn Alumni Association president.

"Ah, just living day to day, week to week, hoping you make it to another year," said McCormick, the seventh of eight children and the only living sibling among his five brothers and two sisters.

McCormick, a Bloomfield native born in 1912, played halfback and defensive end at UConn from 1930-34 and ran the 100 and 220 on the track team from 1933-34.

"My father was born before the Civil War ... did you hear what I said? He was born before the Civil War," McCormick said. "He was born in the latter part of 1860, my own father."

McCormick's playing days, particularly the competitive aspect, has served as a guide to his life.

"I was motivated by a tremendous desire all my life to do it better than anybody else, whatever I did," said McCormick, who has a good memory. "Now what does that mean? I remember this vividly: we were in a track meet with Trinity College and I come in with a guy. He was a big shot. This desire I had to beat everybody, I practically killed myself in the 220. I'm 20 yards in front of everybody and I was running so hard I just spilled right at the line. I still have stitches from that race, but I tell you that because it was my desire. I don't care. I'm going to beat whoever I'm going against. I'm competitive in business, no matter what it is, business, golf, whatever it may be.

"I inherited it, I guess. You either have it or you don't. Every friend I have says I'm the most competitive guy they know, even to this day."

McCormick hasn't golfed in a couple of years. One day, he shot his age. He wasn't happy with the 98, so he kept playing.

He hasn't been to a UConn football game in a few years either, but McCormick was once a regular there as well as men's basketball games.

UConn recognized McCormick at Rentschler Field a few years back and it was one of the most special nights of his life.

"They were playing Pittsburgh, about 40,000 [fans], and they stopped the game," McCormick recalled. "They took a timeout somewhere in the first half and [former UConn athletic director Jeff] Hathaway took me down onto the field and gave this presentation. They gave me a helmet, too. It was so heavy I couldn't wear the damn thing. It was football Man of the Year and all that.

"The best part of it was, when they got through, I had to walk through the crowd to get back to where I was, through the student section, and the comments started coming: 'Go Joe! Go Joe!' ... I thought that was pretty funny. Somebody started it, it caught on. It was pretty interesting."

McCormick's life has been interesting, period.

Aside from his athletic career and commitment to UConn, McCormick is most proud of his military service in the Army.

McCormick received his ROTC commission while at UConn, and in 1941 he began active duty in Boston and later graduated from Infantry School in Fort Benning (Ga.) and from the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

And in 1943, he had a huge task.…

"I had a title of commandant of all amphibious training for the Pacific Ocean. That's a big title," McCormick said with a chuckle. "I trained between 150,000-175,000 troops there."

Between 1943-45, McCormick participated in the battles of Leyte and Peleliu in the Philippines.

"I had a pretty remarkable career in the Pacific, and I also was in the Korean War," said McCormick, pointing to 1950 when he marched with General Dwight Eisenhower during an Honor Guard presentation at Camp Pickett in Virginia.

In Joseph Alsop's book "FDR: A Centenary Remembrance" there is a photo of McCormick briefing President Franklin Roosevelt.

McCormick was still employed by CL&P [then called HELCO, Hartford Electric Light Co.] at the time. He actually started out in the mailroom out of college in 1934 during The Great Depression.

That he even played football at UConn is a story in itself.

"When I went out to Storrs I had never been to a football game," McCormick said. "We had soccer here in Bloomfield. I was captain of the soccer team and basketball team, but I had never seen a football game and knew absolutely nothing about football, but I wanted to play football.

"So I went out for football. I can remember very vividly, a chap comes alongside of me and says, 'Where'd you play football?' He was from Massachusetts.